Tootfinder

"Today marks a significant milestone as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announces a new Open Access policy, representing a departure from traditional practices. This policy will cease support for individual article publishing fees, known as APCs, and mandate the use of preprints while advocating for their review." So Bill Gates reformulates his old saying "banking is necessary, banks are not" for scholarly publishing.

Private equity firm attracts $350 million to support Ukrainian businesses, exceeding target by $100 million: https://benborges.xyz/2024/02/23/private-equity-firm.html

Thrasio, which raised $3B in equity and debt to acquire third-party Amazon sellers, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and secures $90M in emergency funding (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/28/thra

Thrasio, once the king of e-commerce aggregation, files for Ch.11 with $90M to dig itself out | TechCrunch
Thrasio, the U.S. start-up that raised billions of dollars and popularized the concept of e-commerce aggregation -- buying up and restructuring dozens of

"Today marks a significant milestone as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announces a new Open Access policy, representing a departure from traditional practices. This policy will cease support for individual article publishing fees, known as APCs, and mandate the use of preprints while advocating for their review." So Bill Gates reformulates his old saying "banking is necessary, banks are not" for scholarly publishing.

Pluralistic: When private equity destroys your hospital (28 Feb 2024) (Cory Doctorow/Pluralistic)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/28/5000-bats/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240228/p87#a240228p87

USDA unveils dozens of recommendations to advance equity | The Hill #law
https://thehill.com/homenews/race-politics/4483046-usda…

USDA unveils dozens of recommendations to advance equity
The Department of Agriculture’s Equity Commission on Thursday presented a detailed report meant to address the department’s history of discrimination against farmers of color. The report, written by the 15-person commission and members of two subcommittees focused on agriculture and rural community economic development, identified decades-long acts of discrimination and listed a total of 66…

“The S&P downgrade comes a week after word emerged of an $11 billion bid by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management for #Paramount Pictures — a price tag some $3 billion higher than the current total market cap of the parent company.”

Paramount Global Debt Rating Downgraded to Junk by S&P Global
Paramount Global's debt rating was cut to junk status by credit-rating agency S&P Global.

Equity Mates Investing Podcast
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: #GreatAusPods

Equity Mates Investing | Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory
Podcast: Equity Mates Investing Podcast Hosts: Bryce Leske and Alec Renehan Category: Business Sub-Category: Finance & Investing First Episode: 2017 Bryce and Alec bring you Australia’s best investing…

📉 Researchers say 'loss avoidance' is all the rage in private equity
#finance

Researchers say 'loss avoidance' is all the rage in private equity
Private equity (PE) is known as a "high-risk, high-return" asset class. But as risk-averse institutional investors continue to up their stake in PE, private fund managers are expected to provide metrics that characterize the riskiness of their portfolios. Yet the lack of observable prices makes traditional measures of risk (such as standard deviation of periodic investment returns) entirely unsuitable.

Okay okay
We are getting close to get answers, kind of 🙄
Look at this thread
https://x.com/ycfederation/status/1772555077036691952?s=61

Young Conservative Federation (@YCFederation) on X
🧵Let’s meet the Commissioners for the Port of Baltimore, starting with Karenthia A Barber. She knows nothing about Ports, but she is a “diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) auditor and consultant”

Deconstructing the Veneer of Simplicity: Co-Designing Introductory Generative AI Workshops with Local Entrepreneurs
Yasmine Kotturi, Angel Anderson, Glenn Ford, Michael Skirpan, Jeffrey P. Bigham
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17082

Deconstructing the Veneer of Simplicity: Co-Designing Introductory Generative AI Workshops with Local Entrepreneurs
Generative AI platforms and features are permeating many aspects of work. Entrepreneurs from lean economies in particular are well positioned to outsource tasks to generative AI given limited resources. In this paper, we work to address a growing disparity in use of these technologies by building on a four-year partnership with a local entrepreneurial hub dedicated to equity in tech and entrepreneurship. Together, we co-designed an interactive workshops series aimed to onboard local entrepreneu…

49ers CEO York makes move to be principal owner https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39814745/49ers-ceo-jed-york-makes-move-principal-owner

49ers CEO Jed York makes move to be principal owner - ESPN
Niners CEO Jed York is buying enough equity in the team to become principal owner.

Thanks to the ACA, millions of people across the country can access the care they need. Once again, Trump wants to rip away that care and widen health equity gaps that the ACA helped fix. We won’t let him.
#Vote4Healthcare #BlueWaveRising

"Does that song on your phone sound familiar?
#PrivateEquity—the industry responsible for bankrupting companies, slashing jobs and raising the mortality rates at the nursing homes it acquires—is making money by gobbling up the rights for old hits and pumping them back into our present. The result is a markedly blander

Opinion | When Private Equity Came for the Music Industry
Private equity is cannibalizing the music industry by buying up old hits and pushing them back into our cultural consciousness.

“*The equity of the tax structure is an important end in itself. The ability of a people to institute a fair and equitable tax structure is a true test of social responsibility in a working democracy*.”
Richard Musgrave, testimony on Revenue Act of 1963.
See page 2202: https://www.goo…

Revenue Act of 1963

DLF's Committee for Equity & Inclusion meets Mon 2/26 (12pmPT/1pm MT/2pm CT/3pm ET) and is open to all. Interested folks can contact me for login info. #diversity #equity #inclusion

Bengaluru-based smart ring maker Ultrahuman raised a $35M Series B, with $25M in equity and the rest in debt, from Blume, Steadview Capital, Nexus, and others (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/20/ultrahuman-series-b/

Smart ring maker Ultrahuman has its eye on Oura's crown | TechCrunch
India's Ultrahuman is prepping for a growth tear. Today it's announcing the close of $35 million in Series B* funding, a mix of equity ($25M) and debt. India's Ultrahuman is prepping for a growth tear. Today it's announcing the close of $35 million in Series B* funding, a mix of equity ($25M) and debt.

Yup. Universal Basic Income works for society.
#equity #opportunity #society

Vice leadership failed to act as responsible stewards of a good product, and instead paid themselves lavish salaries and burned through hundreds of millions (Chris Thompson/Defector)
https://defector.com/vices-avaricious-stewards-finally-succeed…

Vice's Avaricious Stewards Finally Succeeded At Bleeding It Dry | Defector
Vice was a good website. On Thursday it was killed by its private equity owners, in a characteristically cruel and sudden maneuver: Staff reportedly received an “anonymous tip” that Fortress Investment Group, which bought Vice Media out of bankruptcy in June, had decided to shutter the operation; soon management began working quietly on the backend […]

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
"As pet ownership soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, private equity followed close behind. The pandemic years of 2020-2022 were 'the peak years for private equity acquisitions of veterinary services and practices' [...]

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — About a year ago, veterinarian Melissa Ezell started noticing subtle changes at the midsized animal clinic in Huntsville, Alabama, where she works. Hollowed Out This story is one in a series examining private equity’s impact on health care and the ways that states are responding.

A Toolbox for Surfacing Health Equity Harms and Biases in Large Language Models
Stephen R. Pfohl, Heather Cole-Lewis, Rory Sayres, Darlene Neal, Mercy Asiedu, Awa Dieng, Nenad Tomasev, Qazi Mamunur Rashid, Shekoofeh Azizi, Negar Rostamzadeh, Liam G. McCoy, Leo Anthony Celi, Yun Liu, Mike Schaekermann, Alanna Walton, Alicia Parrish, Chirag Nagpal, Preeti Singh, Akeiylah Dewitt, Philip Mansfield, Sushant Prakash, Katherine Heller, Alan Karthikesalingam, Christopher Semturs, Joelle Barral…

A Toolbox for Surfacing Health Equity Harms and Biases in Large Language Models
Large language models (LLMs) hold immense promise to serve complex health information needs but also have the potential to introduce harm and exacerbate health disparities. Reliably evaluating equity-related model failures is a critical step toward developing systems that promote health equity. In this work, we present resources and methodologies for surfacing biases with potential to precipitate equity-related harms in long-form, LLM-generated answers to medical questions and then conduct an e…

Late on Friday the University of Florida eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion offices firing 13 employees and eliminating 15 administrative positions. https://www.alligator.org/article/2024/03/uf-eliminates-diversity-equity-and-inclus…

UF eliminates diversity, equity and inclusion offices
Service of the University of Florida Community since 1901

Here's their press release from this morning:
Alt text here instead of in images due to length:
NEWS RELEASE Embargoed until April 24, 7:00am PST
Divest From Death USA
Media Contact: Media Liaisons, USC Divest From Death Coalition USCSolidarityOccupation@protonmail.com
USC Divest From Death Coalition to Begin Gaza Solidarity Occupation in University of
Southern California Campus
LOS ANGELES. (April 24, 2023) — USC Divest From Death Coalition today announced theit occupation of USC's Alumni Park, where the increasingly controversial 2024 Commencement is currently set to take place. The students taking part in the Gaza Solidarity Occupation are planning to occupy USC until their demands are met. The coalition joins other students groups across the country in the National Students for Justice in Palestine's "Popular University for Gaza," a coordinated mass movement of students, faculty and staff that disrupts universities, creating climates that push universities to answer community and international calls for full divestment from the Zionist entity, and all of the industries that sustain it.
1. End War Profiteering and Investment in Genocide. USC must fully disclose and divest its finances and endowment from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine, including the US Military and weapons manufacturing. USC must comumit to accountability through full transparency of their financial investments.
2. Complete Academic Boycott of Israel. USC must end its study abroad programs at Hebrew University's Rothenberg International School and Reichman University and sever all academic ties and research cooperation with Israeli universities.
3. Protect free speech on campus and provide full amnesty to all students, staff, and faculty disciplined, penalized, or fired for their pro-Palestine ackivism. USC must abide by their self- proclaimed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion values and implement material policies protecting the safety of its marginalized students.
4. Stop the Displacement, from South Central to Palestine. No land grabs, whether in South Central, Tongva territory, or Palestine. Cease expansion, provide reparations, and support housing for low-income South Central residents. No development by USC without genuine community control.
5. No Policing on Campus. End the targeted repression and harassment of Black, Brown, and Palestinian students and their allies on and off campus, including through university disciplinary processes. Defund the Department of Public Safety and disclose and sever all ties with the LAPD.
6. End the Silence on the Genocide in Palestine. Release a public statement calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza, denouncing the ongoing genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, and call on government officials o do so too.
"I'm participating in the Gaza Solidarity Occupation at USC to highlight and amplify the anti- zionist Jewish voice at USC and be in solidarity with the Palestinian fight for liberation," says a student organizer from USC's chapter of Jewish Voices for Palestine (JVP). "JVP USC feels our voice is especially important right now as many people at USC and across the country are equating zionism and Judaism, but we are here to say they are not the same! We stand by our belief of free speech, resistance to oppressive systems and solidarity with our valedictorian Asna and all other college campuses where pro-Palestine voices have been silenced."
The USC Divest From Death Coalition establishes the occupation mo st fundamentally in solidarity with the people of Palestine as they resist genocide and continue in their struggle for liberation. The occupation is also in resistance to attempts by USC and other universities to suppress the student movement for Palestine on its campuses, in resistance to the silencing of students that criticize the state of Israel, in resistance to the university administrators and boards of trustees who profit off the genocide of Palestinians; The students taking part are firm in their commitment to speaking out against the university's complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people.
"USC's funding of the ongoing genocide perpetuated by the zionist entity is reflective of maintaining imperialist interests abroad, as well as solidifying the shared ideology of amerikan and zionist institutions in preserving racialized oppression," says a student organizer of the Gaza Solidarity Occupation. "To not stand in opposition to the expressly racist violence here and abroad is to ignore the calls for solidarity demanded by the majority of the world. USC acts in accordance with these oppressions, and to call against this is to recognize both the inhumanity of these systems and our own humanity in opposing them."
We have chosen to use the word "occupation” instead of "encampment" to draw attention to USC as an occupying force on unceded Gabrieleno/Tongva land, an occupying force in South Central through its expansion into, gentrification of, and destruction of the existing community, and as a complicit power in Israeli occupation of Palestine.
About USC Divest From Death
In joining the national "Cut Ties with Genocide: Divest from Death" campaign, USC Divest From Death pushes our institutions to divest from companies complicit in the genocide of Palestinians, in all its iterations, alongside thousands of campuses. The coalition's push for the advancement of the key demand points on campus is the first steps towards the liberation of all people by ending the complicity of the University of Southern California in the violence enacted on our communities. Through the intentional act of coalition building, the students of USC realize that we are part of an interconnected fight for freedom taking place on campus, in our communities and homelands. We envision campuses free from militarism, occupation, and war through the implementation of divestment at USC
About Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
The student movement for the liberation of Palestine first began in the 1950s through the formation of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS). From the U.S. to Palestine, GUPS chapters galvanized thousands of students towards a liberated Palestine. The 90s” wave of corrupt politicians and faulty deals changed the liberation movement as we knew it and many institutions, including the student movement, collapsed. In the absence of a Palestinian student movement, organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine emerged across occupied Turtle Island (U.S. and Canada) as a way to educate, advocate, and mobilize in support for Palestinian liberation. Nearly two decades after the formation of the first Students for Justice in Palestine, the movement for Palestine has taken colleges and universities across North America by storm. With over 200 campus Palestine solidarity organizations across the continent, students have been leaders in uplifting demands for freedom, Justice, and equality for the Palestinian people.

#NowPlaying #ForAgainst Dreamt it cost $20 to cross the Golden Gate Bridge by foot. With a guide. Cars stopped working long ago when companies were forced to carry out drastic changes under private equity ownership.

A New Publisher Promises Authors ‘the Lion’s Share of the Profit’
Authors Equity is tiny but has big industry names behind it. Its founders hope their profit-sharing approach and experience will entice authors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/books/p

A New Publisher Promises Authors ‘the Lion’s Share of the Profit’
Authors Equity is tiny but has big industry names behind it. Its founders hope their profit-sharing approach and experience will entice authors.

"In his ruling, the [high court] judge said there was a well-established principle in law of jury equity; this was a de facto power to acquit a defendant regardless of directions from the judge. He said the principle in law had been tested in the highest courts in England and Wales, and existed in other countries such as Canada, New Zealand and the US."

On short-time behavior of implied volatility in a market model with indexes
Huy N. Chau, Duy Nguyen, Thai Nguyen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.16509 https://<…

On short-time behavior of implied volatility in a market model with indexes
This paper investigates short-term behaviors of implied volatility of derivatives written on indexes in equity markets when the index processes are constructed by using a ranking procedure. Even in simple market settings where stock prices follow geometric Brownian motion dynamics, the ranking mechanism can produce the observed term structure of at-the-money (ATM) implied volatility skew for equity indexes. Our proposed models showcase the ability to reconcile two seemingly contradictory featur…

truth👇
#equity

truth👇
#equity

Year of Open Science Conference recordings
And particularly these two sessions/presentations:
- Evidencing the Prevalence and Impact of #OpenScience Practices #Equity, Training, and Norms), particularly the presentation by Sam Teplitzky on Research Community Outreach with the Open Science Team Agreement (at the end!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJUxwOd29uI&list=PLChfyH8TVDGnB_zDCm8d9oonMomfk8v9X&index=35

“*The equity of the tax structure is an important end in itself. The ability of a people to institute a fair and equitable tax structure is a true test of social responsibility in a working democracy*.”
Richard Musgrave, testimony on Revenue Act of 1963.
See page 2202: https://www.goo…

Revenue Act of 1963

Sources: Broadcom is nearing a $3.8B deal to sell its end-user computing unit to private equity firm KKR (Milana Vinn/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/broadcom-nears-38-bln-sale-remote-access-unit-kkr-2024-02-24/…

A Fairness-Oriented Reinforcement Learning Approach for the Operation and Control of Shared Micromobility Services
Luca Vittorio Piron, Matteo Cederle, Marina Ceccon, Federico Chiariotti, Alessandro Fabris, Marco Fabris, Gian Antonio Susto
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.15780

A Fairness-Oriented Reinforcement Learning Approach for the Operation and Control of Shared Micromobility Services
As Machine Learning systems become increasingly popular across diverse application domains, including those with direct human implications, the imperative of equity and algorithmic fairness has risen to prominence in the Artificial Intelligence community. On the other hand, in the context of Shared Micromobility Systems, the exploration of fairness-oriented approaches remains limited. Addressing this gap, we introduce a pioneering investigation into the balance between performance optimization …

"Biden’s ‘Solar for All’ awards $7B to bring affordable energy to low-income families"
#US #USA #America #Solar…

Biden’s ‘Solar for All’ awards $7B to bring affordable energy to low-income families
The program will provide money to 60 organizations to finance new and existing residential solar programs in low-income communities.

https://akidsco.com/products/a-kids-book-about-digital-equity

A Kids Book About Digital Equity

And why would Cohen take out a home equity loan and use a shell company to pay off Daniels for something that didn’t happen?
Hope Hicks will Testify: She Talked w/ prosecutors for hours, and was in on Negotiations w/ Daniels

Hope Hicks will Testify: She Talked w/ prosecutors for hours, and was in on Negotiations w/ Daniels
She also defied a subpoena….. But first, Trump’s apparent defense strategy: …….Trump could go scorched earth. He could deny that he ever had sex with Daniels, argue he paid her off because she was extorting him, maintain there’s nothing wrong with the...

Yup. Universal Basic Income works for society.
#equity #opportunity #society

Vice leadership failed to act as responsible stewards of a good product, and instead paid themselves lavish salaries and burned through hundreds of millions (Chris Thompson/Defector)
https://defector.com/vices-avaricious-stewards-finally-succeed…

Vice's Avaricious Stewards Finally Succeeded At Bleeding It Dry | Defector
Vice was a good website. On Thursday it was killed by its private equity owners, in a characteristically cruel and sudden maneuver: Staff reportedly received an “anonymous tip” that Fortress Investment Group, which bought Vice Media out of bankruptcy in June, had decided to shutter the operation; soon management began working quietly on the backend […]

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
"As pet ownership soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, private equity followed close behind. The pandemic years of 2020-2022 were 'the peak years for private equity acquisitions of veterinary services and practices' [...]

Vets fret as private equity snaps up clinics, pet care companies
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — About a year ago, veterinarian Melissa Ezell started noticing subtle changes at the midsized animal clinic in Huntsville, Alabama, where she works. Hollowed Out This story is one in a series examining private equity’s impact on health care and the ways that states are responding.

Sources: Broadcom is nearing a $3.8B deal to sell its end-user computing unit to private equity firm KKR (Milana Vinn/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/broadcom-nears-38-bln-sale-remote-access-unit-kkr-2024-02-24/…

Putting a speed camera in a low-income neighborhood doesn't "target" the neighborhood - it protects it from speeders.
Baltimore study checks registration address of 268,000 ticketed vehicles. Only 10% were within one mile of camera location.
Also: 248 vehicles received 20 or more citations within 6 months.

Baltimore speed cameras aren’t nabbing neighbors, new study says
Only 4% of drivers who received a citation live within a half mile of the camera that cited them, the report claims.

The Wiggle is the main east-west bike artery in SF connecting The Mission and SOMA Neighborhoods to The Richmond, Haight-Ashbury and beyond. Everyone who bikes in SF relies on it, and yet with just two exceptions, every part of the Wiggle prioritizes cars over bikes and pedestrians.
We have some thoughts!
Interested? We’ll have more to say soon, but for now we'll be at Wiggle Fest this Sunday from 12-4 at car-free (!) Steiner & Duboce. Come say hi!

It makes me downright queasy that private equity bought 1Password. I'm sure that's an overreaction, private equity has never bought companies and fucked them up just to turn a quick profit, have they? It's so tempting to put 2FA in there too, but, SPOF, that would suck.

armchair activist: "you can't be working with housing contractors and realtors to try to make stuff affordable"
meanwhile, sweat equity programs where one foreman helps people build their houses
or: "you work with the moderates? how dare you"
or: "you work with the progressives and not the anarchists? you obviously aren't aligned with mutual aid"
or: "you work with a politician for the dems? how are you going to change things?"
approximately: "you must forego all systems of organized support, you must do this thing entirely keto"
my friend,
reality of it is, you need money to buy land, or you need the city council to donate the sewer
you need friends
as you advocate for better things
we can't do /everything/ as principled standoffish jerks
there's definitely things we can be punk about
but it really damn helps when you have a super awesome city council member you helped get elected
yeah, the system is busted
but it'll take time and **friends** to change it.

For the millionth time…
HEALTHCARE SHOULD NOT BE A FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE! 🤦🏼‍♂️ https://newsie.social/@TheConversationUS/112096536599672834

The Conversation U.S. (@TheConversationUS@newsie.social)
Attached: 1 image A 4-month investigation by The Conversation uncovers the truth about many private-equity-owned for-profit nursing home chains, who make millions for their owners while cutting corners on patient care, driven by greed at the expense of our vulnerable seniors. The government, which already has the power to stop it, falls short. https://theconversation.com/for-profit-nursing-homes-are-cutting-corners-on-safety-and-draining-resources-with-financial-shenanigans-especially-at-mi…

🏀@… #NBA
Via High Yield Harry @HighyieldHarry
·
2h
Someone gave Platinum Equity a 1 star review. Who gave it, you ask? None other than Bojan Bogdanović, who got traded last month by the Pistons, which the Founder of Platinum owns.

Year of Open Science Conference recordings
And particularly these two sessions/presentations:
- Evidencing the Prevalence and Impact of #OpenScience Practices #Equity, Training, and Norms), particularly the presentation by Sam Teplitzky on Research Community Outreach with the Open Science Team Agreement (at the end!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJUxwOd29uI&list=PLChfyH8TVDGnB_zDCm8d9oonMomfk8v9X&index=35

Hell yeah. I'm a landlord for tax reform. Tax me baby.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/16/greens-are-targeting-tax-breaks-for-investors…

Just caught wind of this initiative: Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA) https://www.orcaopen.org/
Happy to see that it does seem to have a broader vision of open science, recognizes plurality in epistemic practices, & folds in a concern for equity. Nonetheless, the adoption of the cute & cuddly orc…

Authors Equity, a US book publisher from former Penguin Random House and Macmillan executives, launches with plans to give authors the "lion's share" of profits (Elizabeth A. Harris/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/books/publi…

A New Publisher Promises Authors ‘the Lion’s Share of the Profit’
Authors Equity is tiny but has big industry names behind it. Its founders hope their profit-sharing approach and experience will entice authors.

Over the last month my wife and I have been considering downsizing, moving from a large house to a condo. It was always the plan, we need our home equity to continue to retire comfortably, but we're now considering it 5 years earlier than anticipated. It's a bit scary jumping back into the real estate market after 15 years on the sidelines. Depending on the market we'll make a move late this summer or early in 2025.
This could be a long drawn out thread...

Just to point out the obvious: the literal opposite of diversity, equity, and inclusion is exclusion, inequity, and monotony.
I would love to see a reporter with the guts to hound some anti-DEI politician for an entire interview about why they support those things.

Atlas-X Equity Financing: Unlocking New Methods to Securely Obfuscate Axe Inventory Data Based on Differential Privacy
Antigoni Polychroniadou, Gabriele Cipriani, Richard Hua, Tucker Balch
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.06686

Atlas-X Equity Financing: Unlocking New Methods to Securely Obfuscate Axe Inventory Data Based on Differential Privacy
Banks publish daily a list of available securities/assets (axe list) to selected clients to help them effectively locate Long (buy) or Short (sell) trades at reduced financing rates. This reduces costs for the bank, as the list aggregates the bank's internal firm inventory per asset for all clients of long as well as short trades. However, this is somewhat problematic: (1) the bank's inventory is revealed; (2) trades of clients who contribute to the aggregated list, particularly those deemed la…

Model N, a public company focusing on helping health companies automate pricing and compliance decisions, is being acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.25B (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/08/vist

Vista Equity Partners to take revenue optimization platform Model N private in $1.25B deal | TechCrunch
Model N, a platform used by companies to automate decisions related to pricing, incentives, and compliance, is going private in a $1.25B deal.

States must assess road safety for pedestrians, cyclists under FHWA proposed rule change
#RealEstate #UrbanDevelopment #SmartCitiesDive

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion employees will no longer have a job at University of Florida (Lillian Lawson/USA Today)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/01/university-of-florida-fires-diversity-equity-inclusion-employees/72809013007/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240301/p61#a240301p61

Private Equity Has Its Eyes on Child Care - The Atlantic
https://archive.ph/nghBi

Equitable screening
Filip Tokarski
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.08781 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.08781…

Equitable screening
I study the problem of a government providing benefits while considering the perceived equity of the resulting allocation. Such concerns are modeled through an equity constraint requiring that equally deserving agents receive equal allocations. I ask what forms of screening are compatible with equity and show that while the government cannot equitably screen with a single instrument (e.g. payments or wait times), combining multiple instruments, which on their own favor different groups, allows …

Auditing Fairness under Unobserved Confounding
Yewon Byun, Dylan Sam, Michael Oberst, Zachary C. Lipton, Bryan Wilder
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14713 http…

Auditing Fairness under Unobserved Confounding
A fundamental problem in decision-making systems is the presence of inequity across demographic lines. However, inequity can be difficult to quantify, particularly if our notion of equity relies on hard-to-measure notions like risk (e.g., equal access to treatment for those who would die without it). Auditing such inequity requires accurate measurements of individual risk, which is difficult to estimate in the realistic setting of unobserved confounding. In the case that these unobservables "ex…

Private Equity is a toxic industry.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/24/anti-posse/

“…if it works, it will offer a model for tightening the connection between book culture and capitalism, a leap forward for the forces of efficiency and the fantasies of frictionless markets, ushering in a world where literature succeeds if and only if it sells.”
https://thebaffler.com/latest…

The Gigification of Publishing | Dan Sinykin
A new publishing company called Authors Equity styles itself as a Silicon Valley-esque disruptor. How it will affect a beleaguered book industry?

And, also, because who is left to expose them?
From: @…
https://mastodon.social/@dangillmor/112125973251400958

French electrical equipment maker Legrand agrees to acquire Dutch health software company Enovation from PE firm Main Capital Partners, sources say for €500M (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-…

Legrand to Buy Dutch Health-Tech Firm From Main Capital Partners
French electrical-equipment maker Legrand agreed to acquire Dutch health-software company Enovation from private equity firm Main Capital Partners.

Gerth: White Kentucky politician who opposes DEI tells NAACP: ‘My father was a slave’
#EqualityForAll
https://www.

Gerth: White Kentucky politician who opposes DEI tells NAACP: ‘My father was a slave’
State Rep. Jennifer Decker, who wants to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion programs at state colleges, claims her white father was a slave

Sources: private equity firm Apollo Global Management has made an $11B offer to buy Paramount Global's film and TV studio (Jessica Toonkel/Wall Street Journal)
https://t.co/O1NP9FJJP4

Why Joseph Goffman’s Senate Confirmation as #EPA Assistant Administrator Could Be a Win for Climate Action and Equity - Inside Climate News
https://in…

Why Joseph Goffman’s Senate Confirmation Could Be a Win for Climate Action and Equity - Inside Climate News
The decision to replace John Kerry with John Podesta as the top U.S. climate diplomat may be making headlines this week. But there’s another presidential appointee who could also have a significant impact on the nation’s efforts to address climate change but has mostly flown under the radar.  On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Joseph Goffman […]

🏦 New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech
#finance

New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech | TechCrunch
The EPA awarded $20 billion in grants to kickstart loans and equity investing in climate technologies across the country.

For the millionth time…
HEALTHCARE SHOULD NOT BE A FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE! 🤦🏼‍♂️ https://newsie.social/@TheConversationUS/112096536599672834

The Conversation U.S. (@TheConversationUS@newsie.social)
Attached: 1 image A 4-month investigation by The Conversation uncovers the truth about many private-equity-owned for-profit nursing home chains, who make millions for their owners while cutting corners on patient care, driven by greed at the expense of our vulnerable seniors. The government, which already has the power to stop it, falls short. https://theconversation.com/for-profit-nursing-homes-are-cutting-corners-on-safety-and-draining-resources-with-financial-shenanigans-especially-at-mi…

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion employees will no longer have a job at University of Florida (Lillian Lawson/USA Today)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/01/university-of-florida-fires-diversity-equity-inclusion-employees/72809013007/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240301/p61#a240301p61

The Gigification of Publishing | Dan Sinykin
https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-gigification-of-publishing-sinykin

The Gigification of Publishing | Dan Sinykin
A new publishing company called Authors Equity styles itself as a Silicon Valley-esque disruptor. How it will affect a beleaguered book industry?

Sources: CoreWeave, which offers Nvidia GPUs in the cloud, is in talks to raise funding at a $16B valuation, after being valued at a reported $7B in December (Gillian Tan/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

CoreWeave Is in Talks for Funding at $16 Billion Valuation
CoreWeave, a cloud computing provider that’s among the hottest startups in the artificial intelligence race, is in talks to raise equity capital in a transaction that would more than double its valuation to $16 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

“A new #Alabama law banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices, programming and training in public colleges and other state agencies will go into effect this fall.
[…]
“It is not clear yet whether the law will force some state colleges, which support a combined $16 million in diversity spending, to lay off staff.”

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signs DEI bill into law: What the ‘divisive concepts’ ban will do
It is not clear whether the law will force some state colleges, which support a combined $16 million in diversity spending, to lay off staff.

PE firm Blackstone offers ~$1.5B to purchase Hipgnosis, about 7% higher than the bid made earlier this week by Concord to which Hipgnosis' board had agreed (Michael Msika/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Blackstone Said to Compete With Apollo on Hipgnosis Takeover
Private equity firm Blackstone Inc. is planning to offer nearly $1.5 billion to purchase Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd., competing with a bid made earlier this week by Concord, Sky News reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01644 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

A Holistic Approach for Equity-aware Carbon Reduction of Ridesharing Platforms
Ridesharing services have revolutionized personal mobility, offering convenient on-demand transportation anytime. While early proponents of ridesharing suggested that these services would reduce the overall carbon emissions of the transportation sector, recent studies reported a type of rebound effect showing substantial carbon emissions of ridesharing platforms, mainly due to their deadhead miles traveled between two consecutive rides. However, reducing deadhead miles' emissions can incur long…

🏦 New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech
#finance

New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech | TechCrunch
The EPA awarded $20 billion in grants to kickstart loans and equity investing in climate technologies across the country.

Carta: tech startup workers are receiving 37% less equity in their companies on average compared with 18 months ago; average salaries are down 0.2% since 2022 (Tabby Kinder/Financial Times)
https://t.co/N0iXe2fa1W

LGBTQ publisher Q.Digital has acquired Outsports from Vox Media's SB Nation in an all-stock deal; all seven members of the Outsports team moved to Q.Digital (Sara Guaglione/Digiday)
https://digiday.com/media/vox-media-offloads-outsports-to-q-digital/

Vox Media offloads Outsports to Q.Digital
LGBTQ+ publisher Q.Digital has acquired Outsports from Vox Media in an all-stock equity deal. Q.Digital plans to grow Outsports' audience by 20% and sell sponsorships for its sports coverage.

Carta: tech startup workers are receiving 37% less equity in their companies on average compared with 18 months ago; average salaries are down 0.2% since 2022 (Tabby Kinder/Financial Times)
https://t.co/N0iXe2fa1W

Improving Assessment of Tutoring Practices using Retrieval-Augmented Generation
ZifeiFeiFei, Han, Jionghao Lin, Ashish Gurung, Danielle R. Thomas, Eason Chen, Conrad Borchers, Shivang Gupta, Kenneth R. Koedinger
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14594

Improving Assessment of Tutoring Practices using Retrieval-Augmented Generation
One-on-one tutoring is an effective instructional method for enhancing learning, yet its efficacy hinges on tutor competencies. Novice math tutors often prioritize content-specific guidance, neglecting aspects such as social-emotional learning. Social-emotional learning promotes equity and inclusion and nurturing relationships with students, which is crucial for holistic student development. Assessing the competencies of tutors accurately and efficiently can drive the development of tailored tu…

My home state will be the poorer for it.
“#Alabama Republicans pushed through a sprawling measure on Tuesday that would not only ban state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities, local boards of education and government agencies, but also limit the teaching of ‘divisive concepts’ surrounding race, gender and identity.”

Alabama Republicans Pass Expansive Legislation Targeting D.E.I.
The measure would not only cut funding to diversity programs at public colleges, but also limit the teaching of “divisive concepts” surrounding race and gender.

Private equity firm Silver Lake announces plans to take sports and talent agency Endeavor private at a $13B equity value, or $27.50 per share (Laya Neelakandan/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/02/private-eq

Internal memo: Alibaba plans to roll out a new staff incentive plan on April 1 that combines equity with cash, a significant change to attract and retain talent (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Alibaba Overhauls Incentives to Entice Staff as Stock Languishes
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will roll out a new employee incentive plan starting April that combines equity with cash, a significant adjustment designed to help the e-commerce giant attract and retain talent despite fierce competition.

"Rather than offering book workers the stability and benefits of full-time employment, Authors Equity will rely on the gig economy to get the job done. Look a little more closely, and “growing pool of freelancers” is a terrible euphemism for “jobs are disappearing and more and more of us are fighting for scraps by competing for freelance gigs.”"

Publishing Models That Rely on Gig Workers Are Bad For Everybody
There are only two reasons to get into book publishing: the books (that’s how they get us formerly idealistic English majors) and the people (the other weirdos who also got gotten by the books). Th…

“Why Report for America will no longer place corps members in hedge fund-owned publications”
Those bullet points seem well considered. Though I still think there are more than two solutions to what ROA is, nobly, after here.
https://www.poynter.org/comment…

Why Report for America will no longer place corps members in hedge fund-owned publications - Poynter
Our program must focus on areas where it has the most impact, RFA executive director Kim Kleman writes

As states crack down on prison-phone price gouging and resulting government kickbacks, telecom companies and their private equity backers have new ways to game the system.
Wall Street’s New Prison Scam | Portside
https://portside.org/2024-02-14/wall-streets-new…

Wall Street’s New Prison Scam
As part of a growing effort to stop prison telecom monopolies from charging exorbitant fees for calls between prisoners and their families, last year Minnesota became one of the first states to make all phone calls free for prisoners. And to eliminate the kickback system perpetuating the scheme, the state barred its agencies from collecting commissions on prison phone services, as well as on video calling and e-messaging. 

Report for America's head says it is ending support of hedge fund-owned newsrooms to "prioritize partners that will be springboards for the next generation" (Kim Kleman/Poynter)
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/re

Why Report for America will no longer place corps members in hedge fund-owned publications - Poynter
Our program must focus on areas where it has the most impact, RFA executive director Kim Kleman writes

Uh huh.
“Our research focuses on generating visual affective skills for virtual AI avatars, aiming for positive applications. It is not intended to create content that is used to mislead or deceive …
“The benefits – ranging from enhancing educational equity, improving accessibility for individuals with communication challenges, and offering companionship or therapeutic support to those in need – underscore the importance of our research and other related explorations.”

Kontakt.io, whose software and Bluetooth devices help hospital managers make decisions about patients, beds, and equipment, raised $47.5M from Goldman Sachs (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Goldman Sachs Backs AI in Hospitals With $47.5 Million Kontakt.io Investment
The growth equity unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has invested $47.5 million in Kontakt.io, a startup that helps hospital managers make decisions about patients, beds and equipment.

Sources: e-commerce roll-up firm Kite, which was cofounded by Blackstone in 2022 and closed a $200M equity commitment, shut down earlier in 2024 (Natasha Mascarenhas/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/blackstone-f…

Blackstone-Founded E-Commerce ‘Roll-Up’ Firm Shuts Down
How bad is the slowdown in e-commerce growth? Ask Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms. Two years ago, a division of Blackstone that invests in consumer brands such as Supergoop and Spanx joined a second investor to commit $200 million to an e-commerce startup they had founded ...

Sources: e-commerce roll-up firm Kite, which was cofounded by Blackstone in 2022 and closed a $200M equity commitment, shut down earlier in 2024 (Natasha Mascarenhas/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/blackstone-f…

Blackstone-Founded E-Commerce ‘Roll-Up’ Firm Shuts Down
How bad is the slowdown in e-commerce growth? Ask Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms. Two years ago, a division of Blackstone that invests in consumer brands such as Supergoop and Spanx joined a second investor to commit $200 million to an e-commerce startup they had founded ...

Simon & Schuster celebrates its 100th anniversary, as KKR's investment helps start new imprints and hire editors, while most other publishers seek to cut costs (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/books/booksupdate/si…

Simon & Schuster Turns 100 With a New Owner and a Sense of Optimism
The milestone comes after a particularly turbulent period, when the publisher was put up for sale and bought by a private equity firm. Since then, investments have boosted morale and helped it grow.

Australian data center operator NextDC is raising AU$1.32B of equity to accelerate development and fit-out of centers in its core Sydney and Melbourne markets (Stuart Condie/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/nextdc-raising-86…

Eye Security, which provides cyber protection, incident response, and cyber insurance tools, raised a €36M Series B, led by JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners (Isaac Taylor/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com…

Sources: Sinclair is exploring strategic alternatives for the Tennis Channel, including bringing in an equity partner; Sinclair purchased it in 2016 for $350M (Eric Fisher/Front Office Sports)
https://frontofficesports.com/sinclair-e…

Sinclair Exploring Strategic Alternatives for the Tennis Channel 
Inbound interest in one of the most unique success stories in sports media has the company looking at various options.

OpenAI says that while discussing for-profit terms, Elon Musk "wanted us to merge with Tesla" or wanted "majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO" (The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/5/24091773

OpenAI says Elon Musk wanted ‘absolute control’ of the company
OpenAI has responded to a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk, saying Musk supported a closed-source, for-profit venture but wanted total control over it.

Sources: Reddit plans to target a price range of $31 to $34 a share in its IPO, which would give the company an equity value of around $6B to $6.5B (Corrie Driebusch/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/fi…

PE firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice agrees to buy a majority ownership of IT services provider Presidio from BC Partners; sources: deal could value Presidio at $4B (Granth Vanaik/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/priv

PE firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice agrees to buy a majority ownership of IT services provider Presidio from BC Partners; sources: deal could value Presidio at $4B (Granth Vanaik/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/priv

Demis Hassabis says the AI hype caused by a surge of money is clouding research; CB Insights: VCs invested $42.5B in 2,500 AI startup equity rounds in 2023 (John Thornhill/Financial Times)
https://t.co/YhXIJxm4Ae